Logan’s Bowling Birthday Bash!

I took Natalie to Logan’s party on Saturday.  I was thinking to myself that I’m pretty sure I had a birthday party at the same place about 20 years ago.  :)

These were Natalie’s bowling shoes.  (And also the best picture I managed to capture at the party – it was black light bowling!)

Here she goes!

There’s a fair amount of waiting in bowling.

I’m pretty sure the grouchy face is not actually bowling related.  I think she may have just been slightly done with the photo stalking.  Ahem.

They bowled for awhile, then ate pizza and cake.  Look at Logan’s bowling cake!

Theresa’s sister made the cake and cupcakes – cute!

And so tasty too!

Brooke was saying goodbye and happy birthday – I thought this shot was very sweet.

I asked for a smile:

Super messy cupcake!

Then it was time to get down to some business with bowling.  (And also how to take action pictures with almost no light and no external flash.)

Natalie had pretty much the same system each time for bowling.

She’d grab her 6 pound ball, haul it over to the line, and set it down.

Then she’d push it with all her tiny might, and lay down to watch it roll down the lane.

Sometimes she’d sit down before pushing it.  I’m not sure one technique was superior to the other.  :)

But the laying down was very good.

Kimberly asked me to try and get some shots of her boys bowling. (I will email you what I have…soon!)

Seth had quite the wind-up with his bowling ball.

I think the cape really helped with the bowling.

What I ended up doing, technique wise, for the shots was setting my camera to Shutter priority mode, since I knew anything less than 1/50 sec was simply going to be blurry.  By setting on shutter priority, I kept the speed at 1/50 and the ISO at 3200.  The camera set the aperture, most of the time as low at it would go.  Often the aperture number would blink, telling me it needed to be lower but couldn’t go any lower and I should change my shutter speed.  BUT the camera took the picture anyway, even though they’re on the whole, really awful.  :)  Also, because the room was so dark, the camera couldn’t autofocus, so I got plenty of practice manually focusing.  Yuck!  It was fun though, and since I wasn’t paying for film, free as well.  {Have I mentioned I love digital photography?!!}  At some point it occurred to me to switch out my 35mm lens for my 50mm.  The 50 lets in just a bit more light, and I think it made a bit of difference.

Aidan really could bowl – look at that form!  I even watched him get a strike.  (Granted, the bumpers were up, but he didn’t even hit them much!)

Take a look at the next two pictures – those Watson boys have similar form!

Am I right?!

Here’s sweet Abby, whom I think dressed to match her bowling ball.  :)

I could tell Natalie was a bit tired, but she really enjoyed herself bowling!

It looks like she’s going to chunk it, but I think she chickened out and set it down as usual.  :)

Last push of the ball!

She came in dead last, but I attribute that to a few things:
1. I did not introduce the ramp to her.  (This thing that rolls the ball for you if you are very small.)  It just seems a little like cheating.  And she was having fun without it.
2. She is a girl.  A small girl.
3. I almost always come in dead last when bowling.  I bowled a 36 once. Sorry kid.

I think we may need to come back as a family sometime.  I’m pretty sure the last time I went bowling was before I had kids.  I’m not totally sure, but it’s been awhile!  Joanna would think it was fun, I think.

Happy birthday Logan!!  We’re so happy God made you, and we get to be your friends!